The debate about independent news reporting on the comic book industry has been raging for years. Yet, instead of improving, it seems that larger vendors are exerting more control over supposedly independent news sources. Other vendors without similar clout may suffer comparative unfair advantages.

Well yeah, no duh! I work for a legitimate news outlet — Publishers Weekly Comics Week — but when attempting to write my own “report” on certain news stories I’ve actually been told the only statement anyone would make was up on Newsarama, which already has a sweetheart deal set up with the big players at DC and Marvel to put up weekly press releases on thoroughly vetted subjects.

Of course, if I were a real journalist, I would do an end around and get some of those people who, “would not be named because of the sensitive nature of the discussion,” or even find someone who would speak ON the record and write an actual story. But I’m lazy, and to be honest the cost-to-benefit ratio of such an enterprise would not be worth it right now.

That’s why I can’t get mad at Matt Brady, or Jonah Weiland, or anyone, really. They all have the exact same cost-to-benefit ratio I face. But without Michael Dean, who stopped running his interminable-but-well-researched news investigations for The Comics Journal in order to take over as editor, we’re pretty much sunk. There’s no one out there to investigate DC’s recent sales collapse, or what Marvel’s new film studio really means for their publishing arm, or why Dark Horse has such a hard time getting its book in print in time for movie releases, or the future of Image Comics, or what’s up at IDW, or what the hell is wrong with Travis Charest, or how certain companies that seem to have no real reason for staying in business actually stay in business, and so on and so forth. I mean people TRY to address some of these stories and get canned PR answers most of the time, but no one seems to have the resources to put it together the way a Kim Masters, or Ken Auletta does for the rest of showbiz.

Ironically this content-dearth comes at a time when more and more mainstream journalists, who are supposedly trained to get ANSWERS, dammit! are covering comics. Since so many of these journos are themselves deep-cover fangirls/boys, their coverage tends to be just as eager and unquestioning. Of course, once in a while, an actual piece of somewhat objective coverage slips by, like Geoff Boucher’s profile of Frank Miller in the LA Times. A sad track record for an industry whose two most iconic superheroes both work for newspapers.

Why is there no Masters or Auletta for comics? That’s because there’s no money in it, of course. Yet. Maybe that will change.

This sense of malaise over the state of comics journalism seems to be going around, perhaps fueled by the Comic Foundry affair. Over at the Engine, Warren Ellis longs for good criticism again:

I avoid reading reviews of my own work, as a rule, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read reviews of other peoples’ work and just thought, “it’s not that I disagree with your opinion, but that your opinion is based on you just plain not understanding what you read.” Or, worse, the chill of realising the reviewer just doesn’t know anything about how comics are put together; the equivalent of a music reviewer hearing guitars and thinking they’re clarinets. Which is not something you see often in music writing. And I get this from some of the best-known comics reviewers; I recall one well-regarded guy stating that a book was sloppy because it was cutting its scenes in the middle of the page instead of at the end. Which I imagine came as news to, say, Jaime Hernandez.

So if that’s it, then, uh, I’m probably not interested at all. Which is no big deal, cause I’m just one person, and kind of a tightwad at that. But I’m really unsold on the mass appeal of this periodical. When I think “lifestyle magazine,” I think either “magazine intended to help get you laid” or “magazine intended to make your home nicer, including the meals you eat in your home.” From the look of the sample page, I’m guessing this veers closer to the former. Leong apparently is looking more toward Wired, a magazine I’ve never bought because (a) I don’t think it’s geared towards people like me, and (b) Thomas Frank eviscerated it too thoroughly in the pages of The Baffler for me to actually take it seriously (these two points are probably related). I can understand how Wired manages to exist as a lifestyle magazine which isn’t about finding new sexual partners or what to do with your life after you’ve settled on a single sexual partner. Extreme technophilia clearly is a lifestyle, and I guess the people who live that kind of life read Wired.

Which is probably fairly accurate. CF is not the magazine either Warren or I am looking for, although it is the kind of commercial venture that could fund a budding Michael Dean, although advertiser support for such a venture would be nil.

it’s not that I disagree with your opinion, but that your opinion is based on you just plain not understanding what you read.”

This is why Chuck Austen got run out of comics. He was writing comics that were just as good as Alan Moore, but those who didn’t understand, told everyone else what to think about his work. Then more people who “didn’t understand” jumped on the bandwagon. It’s Fahrenheit 451. Do you know what I mean?

If I were running a novice comics news site, are there some suggestions on how to become solid in, say, a year? How do we get those leads. How can we beat Newsarama and CBR to the punch for a breaking story?

You can never beat Newsarama and CBR to the punch because approved news is released only to approved outlets, like those sites, Wizard and, increasingly, EW and the New York Times.

You’ll need to develop your own sources and your own reporters who can sniff out an actual story and not canned PR. And once you do that, you will no longer get cooperation from “official” sources, or at least that’s the way it was when I was working on the Pulse.

Part of the problem with comics “journalism” is that there isn’t a lot of “news” to cover. It’s mostly PR fluff, along with reviews and interviews of various length and depth. When there is news of interest, it’s often ignored or under-reported, because it’s such a small, incestuous industry, people are reluctant to go on the record about anything.

There’s also not a significant audience clamoring for real comics news, either, so it’s a double-edged sword. If nobody really cares, why should anybody care?

That said, I think the web is the best place for anything specifically targeting the comics world these days. The audience is way too fractured, with a huge gulf between the direct market and mainstream consumer — geographically and demographically — for something like Comic Foundry to work in print. A broader focus on pop culture might work, sort of like Geek Monthly is attempting, but I wouldn’t bet any of my own money on that one. Giant Robot has been mentioned ot me on several occasions as a good example of how it could be done, but I’m not familiar with it.

At the end of the day, all of these operations are businesses and are run with the implicit goal to make money. With that in mind, it’s safe to assume that these third parties don’t have your, the individual reader, best interest at heart and that you shouldn’t trust then implicitly. But do I think that’s a bad thing? No.

Each site and magazine has it’s pros and cons, but I think all in all that the comic industry has the journalism contigent that it deserves. Sure, more (as in quality, not quantity) would be great for the small fraction of us who want to read that kind of real news rather than EW-style entertainment news, but there’s honestly not the financial backing to fund such a venture.

I’d be first in line to read/write/consume for such a venture, but as heidi says “the cost-to-benefit ratio of such an enterprise would not be worth it right now.”

“You’ll need to develop your own sources and your own reporters who can sniff out an actual story and not canned PR.” TELL me about it!

Oh, and what HABE said. We’ve had a mainstream press on bended knee for at least the last half-dozen years (and before that they attacked whom their masters told them to even if there was no reason to do so). It’s not like they’re setting any sort of example for cultural critics.

My biggest pet peeve, besides parroting press releases, is when otherwise qualified and interesting reviewers completely ignore the art in a comic they’re reviewing. If you don’t have the vocab or knowledge to talk about art, maybe you should either acquire it or consider being a prose book reviewer instead…

One of the superhero journalists you mention is currently being sued by his former employer for taking staged photos of himself and for fraud against said newspaper.
To which Photoshopping pales in comparison…

I recall the Comics Buyer’s Guide mentioning something similar back in the early 90s… Marvel stopped sending review copies because they didn’t like the reviews.
If the big boys won’t let you play with their football, take up golf. There are a lot of other companies, some MUCH bigger than DC and Marvel, producing graphic novels. There are smaller companies where early exposure creates trust for the future.
Ignore the head cheerleader, and she might wonder why she’s being ignored, and try to get your notice. Meanwhile, talk with the interesting people who hang out in the library.

One of the superhero journalists you mention is currently being sued by his former employer for taking staged photos of himself and for fraud against said newspaper.
To which Photoshopping pales in comparison…

I recall the Comics Buyer’s Guide mentioning something similar back in the early 90s… Marvel stopped sending review copies because they didn’t like the reviews.
If the big boys won’t let you play with their football, take up golf. There are a lot of other companies, some MUCH bigger than DC and Marvel, producing graphic novels. There are smaller companies where early exposure creates trust for the future.
Ignore the head cheerleader, and she might wonder why she’s being ignored, and try to get your notice. Meanwhile, talk with the interesting people who hang out in the library.

That said, I like Heidi, find nothing really wrong with what people (the beat, newsarama, cbr, etc.) are doing, and I think any astute comic book fan would easily be able to distinguish the articles that are clear marketing and those that actually have something to say that isn’t a sales pitch.

I don’t think anyone can call foul as long as there is open discussion about this and no one is trying to hide this fact.